Windrush scandal raising European Union fears, Home Office hears

May and Rudd have been under pressure over reports thousands who answered the post-World War II call to come to the United Kingdom to work in essential services are wrongly being denied access to state healthcare, losing their jobs and even being threatened with deportation. "Because a few years ago the prime minister said: 'I'm actually sick and exhausted of a government minister who simply blames other people when something goes wrong.' What's changed?" "I didn't see it as a systemic issue until very recently".

The Home Office has launched a major review to check whether anyone has been incorrectly deported.

During an intense grilling at the Commons Home Affairs Committee on Wednesday, the home secretary admitted she was "surprised" she did not realise the scale of the problem earlier.

A dedicated helpline set up last week has received more than 1,300 calls about potential Windrush cases, with 91 appointments booked and 23 cases resolved so far.

Pushing back, Ms May vowed to "leave no stone unturned" in helping members of the Windrush generation swept up in the immigration crackdown, and sought to instead shift the debate on to illegal immigration.

But he again failed to land a decisive blow despite the PM's evasive answers in which she was allowed to wax lyrical about tackling illegal immigration, despite the fact legal Commonwealth British residents have fallen victim to policies aimed at those illegally in the country.

'It's wrong to think the net migration target is the problem here.

At a practical level, MEPs emerging from a closed-door Home Office briefing in the European Parliament wondered about those unable to use the proposed smartphone application to claim their "settled status" - and said they were told the government's app won't work fully on Apple's widely used iPhones. He said they were concerned that the introduction of new online "app" application forms, although simpler, should not become insuperable problems for the "vulnerable" who found technology hard to deal with. Jeremy Corbyn demanded the government rethink what he called its "cruel" immigration policy and get rid of "bogus" targets.

The prime minister said a Labour government would not be "kind or fair to anybody".